A further 21 Covid-19 patients have died in north west London and west London.

Today's update by NHS England says that among the 87 new confirmed deaths in the UK, 21 of which were being cared for at the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust.

The trust runs a series of hospitals including Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, and Ealing Hospital, where the new deaths were confirmed at both sites.

Notably, these new deaths did not happen within a 24-hour period, and instead were over the course of several days.

A spokesman for the trust told the PA news agency: "Sadly, we can confirm that a further 21 patients who had tested positive for Covid-19 have passed away between Friday 20 March and Monday 23 March, and our thoughts remain with those people who have lost loved ones.

"Our trust is seeing a high number of Intensive Care Unit cases, and we are stepping up our support in response to this demand, having already significantly increased the number of intensive care beds at our hospitals, but we need everyone to also do their bit by staying at home and washing your hands."

Last week, Northwick Park hospital declared a "critical incident" due to the rising numbers of coronavirus patients, which lasted for 24 hours before it was stood down.

In a message to staff, the hospital said it had contacted neighbouring hospitals about transferring patients requiring critical care to other neighbouring sites as they did not have enough space.

Some of these patients were issued to Ealing Hospital and other areas near north west London.

A frontline NHS worker at Northwick Park Hospital told the Harrow Times that "people are understandably scared" but that he believed the handling of cases is improving since the critical incident stood down.

The rise of death tolls today is of 26 per cent, which is not the biggest percentage of day-on-day increases so far, but is higher than the 19 per cent increase yesterday.

It takes the UK death toll to 422.

As of 9am on March 24, there are 8,077 confirmed cases in the UK.

Matt Hancock announced today that a new temporary hospital called the NHS Nightingale Hospital at the Excel Centre in London will open next week with two wards each of 2,000 people.

The new hospital is expected to help with rising cases of suspected and confirmed coronavirus cases.

The government has also purchased 7.5million items of protective items for the NHS.